According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 9179 room nights were occupied in the region during the September 2011 quarter - an 11 per cent increase on 2010, and more than double the figure for 2002.

ABS reports tourists have also spent more time in the district with the average hotel stay lasting 1.7 days - slightly less than the South Australian average of two days and $873,515 was spent on hotel accommodation in the Murraylands, nearly three times as much as spending 10 years ago.

However, Murraylands Regional Tourist Association chairwoman Jen Whitehorn said the statistics were misleading because they did not include caravan parks or houseboats.

“Despite an increase since the drought years, we believe caravan parks are still about 30 per cent down,” Ms Whitehorn said.

“So how can you say tourism is up when caravan parks and houseboats are some of the main attractions in the area?

“We would like to know where the houseboats sit.”

Murraylands Tourism Partnership acting chairperson Rosemary Faehrmann, who also manages Riverglen Marina at White Sands, said although the situation had improved recently it was not the best it had been in the decade.

“Certainly for Riverglen Marina, our occupancies have been improving since the drought ended,” Ms Faehrmann said.

“It’s certainly not fully recovered.

“But it’s been a big improvement in the last couple of years.

Ms Faehrmann believed the region was on track for the Tourism SA 2011-2013 local annual growth target of 4.5 per cent for the region.

“The South Australian Tourism Commission has got a campaign for the river at the moment, so we’re hoping that people around the State will take advantage of that and come and see us,” she said.